The Marsh estate in Lancaster.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Labour canvassers were already out on the Marsh, a deprived estate at the back of Lancaster station, on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the announcement of a snap general election.

The city’s MP, Cat Smith, a member of the shadow frontbench who used to work in Jeremy Corbyn’s office, is very visible locally and viewed as hardworking, but cannot take her seat for granted and will have to fight to persuade the electorate that Labour can run the country.

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“I don’t like Jeremy Corbyn. It’s just his manner. I don’t think he’s got any oomph about him,” said Susan Dobson, 56, a lollipop lady on the Marsh. She had voted Labour all her life but was thinking of switching her vote, largely because of Theresa May. “I’m not usually a Tory but I think she’s doing a good job. I’ve never voted Tory before but if she could get in again, I will.”

Lancaster and Fleetwood was one of the few seats that Labour managed to wrest from the Tories in 2015, when Smith won by 1,265 votes. But Lancaster as a district, which includes the poorer seaside town of Morecambe, voted narrowly (51.1%) in favour of Brexit, and so the seat will be seen as a top target for the Conservatives.

Dobson voted to remain in the EU – “I thought better the devil you know, really” – but thought Brexit hadn’t been a disaster so far. “Most of what they said would happen hasn’t. The economy seems quite steady.”

Corbyn is not without his allies in Lancaster. Picking up her child from Willow Lane school on the Marsh, Kerrie Hudson said she thought he was poorly treated by the press. “I think he’s mis-sold in the media. I’ve got a friend who is in the Labour party locally and she’s been to his rallies and says he is actually very charismatic.”

Hudson, 40, who runs a business helping drug and alcohol addicts, said she would never vote Tory. “I don’t like the way they treat vulnerable people.”

Tamar Newton, 38, a teaching assistant, said she had recently voted for the Green party, which holds all three Marsh seats on Lancaster city council. “I normally go Green but I might go Labour this time because I think Jeremy Corbyn and indeed Labour need people’s support,” she said. “I like Jeremy Corbyn. I think he believes in what he says. He’s impassioned. But I have to admit I don’t think he’s going to do brilliantly.”

Most voters the Guardian met in Lancaster seemed resigned to Brexit. But the Liberal Democrats, who came fifth here in 2015, behind Ukip and the Greens, can expect to pick up some votes from young people disillusioned about the process.

“I’ll probably go Lib Dem,” said Caitland Shaw, a 20-year-old student who said she hadn’t voted in the referendum because “I didn’t think we would lose”. She said she’d had “misplaced faith” that the public would make the “right” choice, and liked that the Lib Dems were now fighting for remainers.

Other Labour voters were standing firm. “I’m Labour – reluctantly, nowadays,” said Simon Nixon, front-of-house manager at Lancaster’s Duke’s Theatre. “I’m not particularly keen on the leader. I’m still passionate about some of the values Corbyn demonstrates – I think we should have a referendum on scrapping Trident, which I am totally against. But I think he’s the wrong man. He’s a ditherer. We need a viable opposition and I don’t think he is providing that.” He said Chuka Umunna, the smooth-talking MP for Streatham, in south London, would do a better job. “Only he doesn’t want to do it, does he?”

Outside the Merchant’s pub, a 47-year-old nurse who declined to be named said she didn’t like Corbyn – he was “not very inspirational” and “lacking in dynamism” – but was sticking with Labour because of the NHS. “The NHS is always better when Labour are in charge.” She had voted to leave the EU but seemed disappointed with how it was unfolding. “I felt that we needed more control over our laws and immigration, but it transpires [Brexit] hasn’t worked out that way so far.”